Three Points on the Agenda --DeWese

I negotiate every day. I've completed 60 M&A deals over the past five years and, during that period, I've experienced horrible negotiators and great ones on the other side of these transactions. I recently worked on a very difficult deal involving many lawyers and a lot of rancor on both sides.

One young lawyer stood out as the best. I asked him where he got his great negotiating skills and he told me that he had a great professor in law school. This led me to one of my Carramba experiences, which is like a breathtaking flash of bright insight. I said to myself, "Self, get yourself a law school textbook on negotiating and see what they teach aspiring lawyers."